In a distribution system, a merchant or other product distributor (which may collectively be referred to as distributors) typically maintains an inventory of various items at one or more distribution centers, fulfillment centers, cross-docking facilities, materials handling facilities or warehouses (which may collectively be referred to herein as a materials handling facility). The inventory items are ordered from one or more vendors, received at the materials handling facilities as inbound shipments, and stocked in inventory of the materials handling facilities. In an order fulfillment process, orders for items may be received from customers of the merchant. Units of the ordered items are picked from various locations in the inventory in the materials handling facilities, processed for shipping, and shipped as outbound shipments to the customers.
In many cases, the orders fulfilled by a materials handling facility are placed remotely. For instance, in many cases such orders may be orders submitted via a merchant's website. In these cases, customers may not have the luxury of examining an item in-person. Such in-person examination may in many cases provide a customer with information relevant to the product being considered for purchase; knowledge of this information may make many customers feel more comfortable about purchasing such products remotely. For instance, a food product's label might include relevant information such as a list of ingredients or nutritional information. In another example, the label of an over-the-counter medication might specify directions for use or other information, such as warnings specifying a list of other medications that should not be administered in conjunction with the particular medication. Some merchants may have product catalogues that include vast quantities of different items for sale. Typically, many of such items are provided by disparate vendors. Items supplied by many vendors may not be accompanied by electronic data specifying the information present on the labels of the items.
While various embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that various embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of various embodiments as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.